Freestyle Releasing announced today that they have acquired all rights and are set to distribute in theaters nationwide the star-studded animated comedy HELL & BACK from directors Tom Gianas and Ross Shuman. (more...)

Eddie Cooper and Joe Grifasi will join the previously announced Ellen Greene, Jake Gyllenhaal and Taran Killam in the Encores! Off-Center concert production of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's Little Shop of Horrors, running for three performances, July 1-2, 2015 at New York City Center. Eddie Cooper replaces his father Chuck Cooper, who will be starring in the upcoming Broadway musical Amazing Grace. (more...)

Today in 2005, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee opened at the Circle in the Square Theatre, where it ran for 1136 performances. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a one act musical comedy conceived by Rebecca Feldman with music and lyrics by William Finn, a book by Rachel Sheinkin and additional material by Jay Reiss. The show centers on a fictional spelling bee set in a geographically ambiguous Putnam Valley Middle School. Six quirky adolescents compete in the Bee, run by three equally-quirky grown-ups. The 2005 Broadway production, directed by James Lapine, was nominated for six Tony Awards, winning two, including Best Book. The show has spawned various other productions in the U.S., including a national tour with performances in Canada, and Australian productions. (more...)

Maya Rudolph capped her comments at the Tulane University commencement ceremony in New Orleans Saturday with an over-the-top rendition of the National Anthem that satirized the style of Beyonce and other singers. (more...)

Universal Pictures and CrowdRise today announced the launch of the upcoming 'The Trainwreck Comedy Tour,' presented by Live Nation, a tour of some of the greatest comics of this generation, which kicks off at Boston's The Wilbur on June 14, and concludes in Los Angeles at The Wiltern on June 21. (more...)

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is pleased to announce a new programming initiative, for children ages 7 and up, the Bridge Theater Series will feature professional productions staged by award-winning national and international companies known for their quality and imaginative work. The 2015-2016 inaugural season of the Bridge Theater Series will include a mix of productions based on popular books, current issues and topics, and historical events. The aesthetic will be young, contemporary, thought-provoking, technology-infused, imaginative and challenging. Performing arts companies from the United States and around the globe including India, Peru, the Netherlands, and Scotland will grace various stages in Pittsburgh's downtown Cultural District. Two of the productions in this new series, Titus by Macrobert Arts Centre (Scotland) and Short Stories by Teatro Hugo e Ines (Peru), will take place during the 2016 EQT Children's Theater Festival (May 12-15, 2016). (more...)

Arizona Theatre Company has added a seventh show to the 2015-16 season as it presents a very special production from Stray Cat Theatre, one of Arizona's leading indie theatre companies. Sex With Strangers, a recent off-Broadway hit, is a digital-era story about what happens when you let someone in your door who may know more about you than they let on. (more...)

The Act Too Players (ATP), Williamson County's premier training program for all youths interested in the performing arts is introducing a new program called AT Pro (Act Too Pro) will be dedicated to providing live professional theatre by utilizing the talents of Act Too Players teachers, alumni, and current students to create an experience that inspires, challenges, and educates the children of Williamson County. (more...)

The Des Moines Community Playhouse play reading series continues on Monday, Apr. 6, at 7:00 PM with Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's 'The Velvet Sky.' The evening is free; beverages will be available for purchase. (more...)

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust announces the 29th annual EQT Children's Theater Festival. This family-friendly festival will be held May 14 ? 17, 2015 throughout the Cultural District in downtown Pittsburgh for kids of all ages. The festival is sponsored by the EQT Foundation, the charitable affiliation of the EQT Corporation. (more...)

Norm Macdonald is a major force in comedy whether through TV, film or his stand-up, most fans of comedy recognize him. Norm is perhaps best known for his five seasons as a cast member on Saturday Night Live (SNL). He also wrote for the popular ABC sitcom Roseanne and starred in The Norm Show. He was even named #83 on the “100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time,” a mini-series on Comedy Central. (more...)

Well, they can spell, but can they get a life? The Players Club of Swarthmore Theater invites audiences to laugh at the nerdy antics of some quirky spelling contestants, in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, directed by Chaz Meyers. These serious spellers hit the Players Club of Swarthmore stage for 10 performances: March 20th to April 4th. (more...)

CoHo Productions continues our summertime programing with the 4th year of CoHo Summerfest - a festival curated by Producing Artistic Director Philip Cuomo, featuring standout new and touring performances by innovative, inspiring, irreverent theatre artists. A hot new show every weekend for 5 weekends; see them all for a steal with a $55 festival pass. (more...)

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today Eric Rohmer's Comedies and Proverbs (April 17-30). The series will feature the films from the celebrated director's thematic cycle coinciding with a two-week exclusive run of a new digital restoration of Full Moon in Paris (more...)

With 100% of its ticket sales income going to charities, play nice! Productions, a new theatre group with inter-generational casts and positive themes is premiering its new full-length musical comedy, The Half-Ring Circus….and the Little Cabaret Next Door this month for four weekend matinee performances. This show for family audiences is a story of a down-on-its-luck family-run circus and incorporates traditional circus melodies used for hundreds of years. (more...)

International Film Festival North Hollywood and Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Krekorian's Free Outdoor Summer Movie Series is a smashing success, bringing hundreds of people to North Hollywood parks to enjoy classic Hollywood movies under the stars. (more...)

Can you spell L-A-U-G-H-T-E-R? The Tony® Award winning musical comedy, THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE - one of Broadway's most buzzed about hits - is coming to Commonwealth Theatre Company (CTC), Northern Kentucky University's own professional theatre. CTC continues their 35th Summer Dinner Theatre season with …SPELLING BEE, running July 8-26 in NKU's Stauss Theatre. (more...)

Bay Street Theater is pleased to announce public workshop presentations of a new work-in-progress, COLIN QUINN THE NEW YORK STORY, directed by Jerry Seinfeld. The performances will feature Colin Quinn presenting the full show with the focus on the text and performer. The performances will be June 30, July 2, and July 3 all at 4 pm. Tickets are available online at www.baystreet.org or by stopping by or calling the Box Office at 631-725-9500. (more...)

Shout! Factory, a leading multi-platform entertainment company, has acquired North American rights to the unhinged horror comedy GRAVY directed by actor-writer-producer-director James Roday. The announcement was made today by Shout! Factory's founders Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos, and the film's director James Roday. (more...)

Let's first get this very necessary accolade out of the way: South Coast Repertory's brand new production of Rick Elice's PETER AND THE STARCATCHER is, hands down, one of the most enjoyable, most thrilling, and most engagingly imaginative plays I have seen all season---a fitting capper to the Tony Award-winning Orange County theater's 51st year. This delightfully revised production---which continues performances in Costa Mesa through June 7---re-calibrates the play's hyperactive mixture of mirth and mayhem by further emphasizing its seemingly 'bare-bones' storytelling devices, resulting in one entertaining night of theater that both kids and adults will find endearingly beguiling. Motivated by imagination, I seriously cannot recall the last time I laughed this boisterously and had this much unabashed joy from sitting through a play in quite some time. (more...)

Grab some children - or kids at heart - and make your way to Adventure Theatre MTC for their new version of Baum's popular tale, here called THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ. In a whirlwind of a production, aimed at young audiences, this WIZARD weaves a spell that cannot be broken by the wickedest of witches. (more...)

Milwaukee Repertory Theater concludes its 2014/15 Quadracci Powerhouse Season with the charming, Tony Award-winning play Peter and the Starcatcher, the show The New York Times described as, "the most exhilarating Broadway storytelling in decades!" Based on the bestselling novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson and written by Rick Elice with music by Wayne Barker, Peter and the Starcatcher is the joyous prequel to the beloved story of Peter Pan. An epic origin story that is both hilarious and inspiring - Peter and the Starcatcher has touched the hearts of young and old as it lets their imaginations fly. This family-friendly play comes just in time for spring and runs April 21 - May 24, 2015 in Milwaukee Repertory Theater's Quadracci Powerhouse and opens on Friday, April 24. (more...)

The grown-ups version sold out its Edinburgh runs in both 2013 and 2014 and has toured to Australia twice to great acclaim. It's part recital, part fantasy, part lecture as 'piano man Pickvance' uncovers the physical, emotional and spiritual anatomy of the instrument. (more...)

?Being a grown-up is hard. You have to be concerned about things like bills, a job, a house, traffic, the deterioration of the environment, and violence and injustice in our backyards and around the world. It's really a drag - no wonder Peter Pan doesn't want to be one! And while we boring and worried grown-ups don't have the option of returning to a blissful childhood, we can go to the Children's Theatre Company and forget about all of our grown-up worries, remembering and reveling in the joy and freedom of youth. What better choice for CTC, then, than the musical adaptation of J.M. Barrie's iconic tale about the boy who won't grow up? Kids love it because they see themselves in Peter, and we grown-ups see an even deeper meaning in the story as we watch the children around us grow up in an increasingly dangerous world, and long for our own days of innocence. It's a perfect choice perfectly executed by the entire cast and creative and technical teams. This PETER PAN is something quite magical, and quite simply the best thing I've seen at CTC. (more...)

Theater fans are eagerly awaiting tomorrow's announcement of this year's Tony Award nominees, and a Finding Neverland campaign is already in the works. Variety has shared an excerpt of an op-ed letter written by Peter Pan expert Maria Tatar, professor of Germanic languages and literatures and folklore and mythology at Harvard University, which was sent out to the nominators of Broadway's most distinguished awards. According to the site, Weinstein is hoping to 'bolster the critical credibility' of his show, which recently opened to mixed reviews. (more...)

This summer, brush up on your grammar school knowledge with Angela, Dee, Lauren, Mason, Reagan and Tres, the new class of fifth graders who will assist the grown-up contestants on the popular quiz show ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5th GRADER?, when it returns Tuesday, May 26 (more...)

Following its Edinburgh Fringe 2014 sell out success, the critically acclaimed Kingmaker hits The Arts Theatre in London and The Marlborough Theatre at The Brighton Fringe this Spring. The writers of previous Edinburgh Fringe hits Coalition and Making News and multi-award winning director of Instinct For Kindness and Lockerbie - Unfinished Business have teamed with one of the most respected actors of his generation to present a satirical tale of political intrigue, gamesmanship and ambition in the corridors of power. Alan Cox is directed by Hannah Eidinow in Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky's Kingmaker, the story of a fictional yet strangely familiar political figure whose bumbling bonhomie disguises a fierce determination and a heart of steel. The subject matter of this biting satire is expected to be brought into sharp focus in the last few days of campaigning for the general election and the inevitable political frenzy that follows during the mad month of May.
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New York City Center will present the New York premiere of Sequence 8, the internationally celebrated nouveau cirque spectacular by Les 7 Doigts de la Main (The 7 Fingers), from April 16-26, 2015. (more...)

The Lyric Hammersmith today announces its programme from September 2015. Laura Wade and Lyndsey Turner reunite after the success of Posh, to bring a new adaptation of Sarah Waters' Tipping the Velvet to the Lyric's main stage in September. (more...)

I don't know if you've noticed, but there's something exciting going on in downtown St. Paul. In what's usually regarded as the sleepier of the Twin Cities, Park Square Theatre has recently opened a second stage in the Historic Hamm Building on lovely 7th Place. This extra space has allowed them to do some great things in the last few months, including producing regional premieres, partnering with local theater companies (look for shows by Sandbox Theatre, Theatre Pro Rata, and Girl Friday Productions this spring and summer), an increased focus on diversity, and continuing their commitment to students. They currently have three fantastic shows playing on the two stages, including student matinees of an effectively condensed ROMEO AND JULIET. But for us grown-ups, the two stages offer two very different but both excellent choices: the bittersweet comedy SHOOTING STAR on the Proscenium Stage, and the emotional drama THE OTHER PLACE on the new Boss Stage. Read on to make your choice, but hurry, both shows close on April 19. (more...)